


The End And The Beginning

by sungabraverday



Series: Maysilee Donner: Victor [1]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-13 01:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungabraverday/pseuds/sungabraverday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haymitch doesn't win the Second Quarter Quell. Maysilee does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End And The Beginning

  


After days of walking, the pair finally reached a steep cliff. Looking over the edge, they could see a landscape strewn with jagged rocks at the bottom. “I suppose this is it, then. The end of the arena,” the girl said contemplatively. She paused to look for a minute longer, before turning to her companion. “Is it worth it?” she asked, the answer that she found evident in her tone.

The boy idled, staring over the edge, looking for something more. “I’m not sure.”

“That's all there is, Haymitch,” she repeated, something akin to annoyance creeping into her voice. “Let's go back.”

Haymitch shook his head firmly. “No, I’m staying here.”

Maysilee frowned, but consented. “All right. There’s only five of us left. May as well say goodbye now, anyway. I don't want it to come down to you and me.”

Haymitch shrugged then. “Okay.” He didn’t look up or offer a handshake, just kept standing and looking over the cliff, seeking something. Maysilee didn’t know whether he was right or not about there being something more, but she didn’t have the patience to wait and find out when everything and everyone in the arena was obviously out to get them. She left him.

She walked back across the meadow they had just come across. She watched where she placed each step carefully, not trusting in the Gamemakers to leave even the ground beneath her feet stable. With her focus so intent on the ground, however, she missed the candy pink birds flying low overhead until it was almost too late.

She ducked down to the ground, crouching low, and threw her arms over her head for protection. It was just in time, as one of the birds’ razor sharp beaks stabbed through her arm, skewering it before taking off again. She screamed and thrashed her arm around, blood spattering everywhere, hoping to scare them away. Her other hand reached into the pouch on her hip that held her poisoned darts. Careful to leave herself unpoisoned in the process, she stabbed at the birds attacking her with a dart coated in venomous flower pollen, effectively killing three of the pink terrors before the remaining birds flew off, leaving her alone.

She deftly tore a strip off of her vest to wrap around her arm as a bandage, moving quickly. She had screamed, and even if Haymitch didn’t seem to be coming after her now, she couldn't count on that - she had broken the alliance that had kept them both safe for the past few days. And there were still three others who could be looking for her. She plucked her dart out of the last bird she had killed, and slipped it in to join her remaining ammunition.

And then she was up and on the move again, slightly light-headed from the blood loss. She ran to the cover of the nearest pine stand, checked quickly above and around her for the golden carnivorous squirrels, and climbed into the trees, hiding in the branches. In the distance a cannon sounded, and she shivered. Was that the last Career girl? Or one of the other two who had survived this far? Or worst of all, was it Haymitch? Had she inadvertently caused his death by leaving him? Had he jumped?

She hugged the tree tightly as a wave of guilt came crashing through her. She couldn’t move much further, not like this, and she couldn't call out for Haymitch to see if he was alright. But she wanted nothing more in that moment than to do both.

The scratchiness of the pine bark brought her back into herself. She didn’t think Haymitch would have jumped, not really. And she wasn’t responsible for watching his back, not any more. But possibly, if she climbed higher and looked out she could check anyway.

Climbing took more strength than Maysilee really had, but still she climbed, until she could see the point where they had cut through the hedge with a blow-torch. In front of it stood Haymitch, looking at the blood-stained meadow with an expression of contemplation on his face. She imagined what he must be seeing and winced. The meadow, covered in blood, and the cannon that had gone off - but there was no body but those of the birds, and no hovercraft had been by, so surely he must realise that she was alive.

A sharp nod, and Haymitch went back through the hole in the hedge. Maysilee hoped that it meant that he recognised what she knew, but if not, she would just have to be satisfied as is. She was still alive, after all, and so was he.

She slowly climbed partway back down the tree, until the branches were more stable. Carefully settling herself in and fastening herself to the tree for extra safety, she dozed, weary from the blood loss.

She woke with a start to the Panem national anthem, and two faces flashed bright in the sky. Three tributes left. The Career girl from One, Haymitch, and herself.

A rustling around the bottom of the tree caught her attention, and Maysilee looked down. It was Haymitch. She held her breath and tried to still every muscle in her body. He kept moving though, and whether he was looking for her or for the girl from One she didn’t know, but if he wasn’t near her, so much the better for her own safety.

She waited a half hour before she moved, checking her bandaged arm. It wasn’t pretty, but apparently the birds had missed the arteries, because the bleeding had mostly stopped. She would be fine unless she strained it too much, but she tore off another strip from her vest and changed the bandages on her arm. And then she slowly began to climb to the ground.

She wandered around, not going too far, and found a berry bush. Like everything else in this forest, it was probably poisonous, so she took care as she picked a large handful of the berries and put them into the small plastic bowl that she had found in her backpack at the Cornucopia. She retreated into the underbrush, hiding under a bush, as she mashed the berries into a paste. Taking the darts from her pouch, she retouched each of them with the mashed berries. There was no point in chancing her life on old flaky poison. The blowgun was effective, but it took time to load, and if it came down to it, she would only have one chance or it would spell her end.

As she finished, Maysilee heard a crashing through the woods - no, she realised, not one but two. She pulled herself up against the tree trunk behind her, staying low and discrete so that the other two tributes wouldn’t find her. They crashed on by, with one clearly focused intently on the other. A pursuit, a deadly one. Whoever survived it would be her final target, she knew.

She left them enough time to pass, and loaded her blowgun, rising to her feet. If she could find them before they found her, then she could really win this. She had a brief flash of District 12, of her sister Marjorie, of Yarrow Fleming, of Andamy Mellark, of all of her class mates and friends and the whole district watching her. She shook her head firmly. After. Not before.

She gave them a five minute headstart, and then followed their obvious and bloody trail. She didn't move terribly stealthily, as she knew she didn’t really need to. The amount of blood was staggering, and she suspected that if she just waited it out she could win by them having killed each other. Still, weren’t they supposed to be putting on a show for the Capitol? It was a bitter thought, and she swallowed it.

The trail was clearly leading back toward the hedges, which Maysilee realised meant Haymitch was the one who was leading. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She wasn’t sure. The trees thinned, and she peered across the meadow. Yes, the blood trail led right up to the hole she had made with Haymitch. She didn’t waste any time crossing the meadow, and ducked behind the hedge to hide herself from view just as a cannon went off in the distance.

With exactly one tribute left, she walked out towards the cliff edge. The sight was a thoroughly unexpected one. Haymitch lay awkwardly in front of the cliff’s edge, holding his intestines in. But the Girl from District One had lost one eye, and had an axe firmly implanted in the skull right over the other. The cannon had been hers.

Maysilee walked over to the edge, and knelt beside Haymitch. “You’re...” She wasn’t sure what she meant to say. He had no weapons, and he was close to death - the wound would obviously be lethal within the hour. Short of her killing herself, she had won.

Below her, Haymitch tried to smile, but it looked far more like a grimace. “Guess the girl from the Town is going to win this one, hey?”

Maysilee felt the tears start running down her face, but she ignored them. “Do you want me to...” she couldn’t manage to say the words, instead gesturing at the pouch where she kept her darts.

He nodded slightly, and grabbed her wrist, struggling to manage the words. “Beat them at their own game for me, Maysilee. Give them a show they’ll never forget.”

Maysilee’s hand pulled out a dart. “I will. I promise.” She bent over and kissed him lightly on the lips, stabbing him with the dart as she did so.

She stood up, and the cannon went off in the distance as she lifted the three outstretched fingers of her left hand over Haymitch in the traditional District 12 salute, tears running in burning clean lines down her face.

Maysilee Donner of District Twelve, the Victor of the 50th Annual Hunger Games.


End file.
